Month: July 2018

I have written many times on these pages that I was a God hater during my lost years. Firing people who tried to bring Jesus on to my jobsites and if I could not do that I would be sure to make their lives miserable. And unlike the Apostle Paul it was not because I had a fervent belief that drove me to do it. No, I just had a committed hatred of anything ‘God’.

I can’t say I know where that began. But I was raised to believe that God was vengeful, and wrath filled. More scary then loving. And truth be known, most Christians I dealt with did little to dispel my deepening loathing of religion and those who claimed to be religious.

Today I want to tell you of a couple who knew me during this time and because of who they were, I gained a glimpse of what I think Jesus intends  all who follow Him to be. Let me share my blessing of having Pastor Vern and Patty Hyland as my friends in Christ.

Our first meeting was less than auspicious. It was in the late 1980’s when we were spending time with my wife’s family who were living in and around Grants Pass, Oregon. On a Friday night my brother in law and myself had been drinking copious amounts of alcohol, when it was announced that we would be attending church the next morning. Evidently, Dianne’s  cousin Vern and his wife Patty had returned from the mission field in Sri Lanka and he was speaking at the little church in Cave Junction, Oregon. The whole family was to attend. That included me. I didn’t protest a whole bunch because the day would also include a visit to the Oregon Caves, which were in the Cave Junction area. But it also did not curtail my drinking which continued until the wee hours of Saturday morning.

So, as it happens the first time I met Vern and Patty, along with the first time I stepped a foot into a Seventh Day Adventist Church, I was still inebriated and remember very little. But one thing did stand out. When I met both these good people, both shook my hand and welcomed me with an earnestness that impressed even my booze-soaked brain.

Over the years after that I would see them at family events or meet them in town when we were visiting from Southern California. Every time, no matter what my attitude was, they would greet me as if I was the one person they had been waiting to see. I found I actually liked being in their presence even it they were speaking of God. Something about them was so real, so loving. Before I even knew about Jesus, they were showing me who He really is.

As I was coming to believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior, there they were again. Now they would be coming over to our house in Grants Pass (by this time we had moved to Oregon) and they had a way of being encouraging without being overbearing. Vern always listening as I tried to understand my fledging faith, I saw no judgement, only true amazement what God was doing in my life. Patty would be the same. My conversion seemed almost to bring them more joy than even I felt. There they were at my baptism, beaming like new parents. It made that day unforgettable.

Then came the year 2014. Dianne was in and out of hospitals. Incapacitated most of the time. Many good people came to visit and spend time with her. But the ones who I always looked forward to were Vern and Patty. They could brighten our day by just being there.

With Dianne’s passing, we became even closer. Over the past years we have experienced ministry together: Celebrating Life in Recovery at the Cave Junction Church. Yes, that very church where we met has become my spiritual home, no matter where I travel. I also led a twenty-one-day revelation seminar there, with Vern and Patty attending, again like loving parents. These two people have shown me what Jesus meant when he said, “A new commandment I give on to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.” (John 13:34) From the day they met this drunken lost soul, they have loved me. But not only me, their love has been spread over continents.

We continue to be more than friends. They have adopted RuthAnn too! Over the years their love and their example has brought me closer to Jesus. Think about that. Can someone say that about you or me. I am praying today that His love will become mine. Here is what I want for my life today, “My children, our love should not be just words and talk, it must be true love, which shows itself in action.” (1 John 3:18) Just like Vern and Patty, I want to walk the walk in the footsteps of Jesus. May we all today.

Blessings and Happy Sabbath, John
7/6/18

I just got done mowing the lawn. It had been about ten days since I had mowed because we were in Texas visiting. Ten days with lots of water from the sprinkling system and lots of Georgia sun, I came home to a yard that looked more like it needed harvesting then mowing. It took maybe two and a half hours to trim and mow, along with blowing off the driveway and tell you what, I am beat!

As I sat down to write it struck me that I am not getting any younger. There was a time when I worked eight or more hours sometimes seven days a week and partied four hours or more every night. I slept as few hours as possible. Got up the next day and did it all over again. Where did I get the strength and endurance?

I think it was around 1986 a favorite rocker of mine, Bob Seger, released a song titled, “Like a Rock”. The song spoke of how as a young man Seger viewed himself as strong and stable, comparing himself to a rock. There is a lyric that says this:

“I was eighteen, Didn’t have a care, Working for peanuts, not a dime to spare, But I was lean and solid everywhere, like a rock. (Like a Rock by Bob Seger)

That is the way I thought of myself, even as I was destroying my body with substances and work itself, nothing could hurt me, I was like the song, a rock. Amazingly enough for almost thirty years that seemed to be true. I worked, I continued to use alcohol and drugs as if they could not hurt me and I did so day after day. But even with this durable body the Lord provided me, that kind of life took its toll.

Add twelve years of the antigen drug I have been taking to keep prostate cancer at bay, along with two lengthy sessions of radiation, now a couple hours in the Georgia heat mowing the lawn makes me feel old. But for me there is also an advantage in realizing that I am not a ‘rock’ because it allows me to understand who is truly THE ROCK, Jesus Christ.

There are many ‘rock’ statements in the Old Testament, ensuring us that our God is unmovable, immutable and unchangeable as a rock. In fact, the Hebrew word that is used is not about a pebble or even a stone, the word, tsur is related to a cliff or a rock formation. The name Yahweh Tsuri is the assurance to His people that He is their rock, “Trust in the LORD (Yahweh) forever, for in God the Lord, we have and everlasting rock (tsuri).” (Isaiah 26:4)

And prophecy of Jesus gave that same assurance that He would be this rock in the new covenant, “Therefore, thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone. A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.” (Isaiah 28:18) And in Psalms, “The stone the builder has rejected has become the corner stone. (Psalm 118:22) Jesus, as the Son of God, is that stone which in Greek is ‘petra’ referring once again to a cliff or rock formation. This makes my boasting thoughts as a kid of being a rock seem pretty lame. Can you relate?

My biggest regret is that it took so long for me to see that dependence on myself was a losing cause. But by the grace of God today I not only can say it but a two-hour stint behind the lawnmower proves it to me again. I think that is why I so often find myself in the gospel of Matthew near the end of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ as Jesus wraps up this amazing sermon he ends like this: “Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the flood came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall. But whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand, and the rain descended, the flood came, and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell. And great was its fall.” (Matthew 7: 24-27)

I guess it comes down to that when we realize who Jesus is and that we can only find solid footing in His words and in His life and death can we find the one thing that does not wear out over time, like my weary old body, Jesus and His eternal love for us.

I am blessed looking out at my yard knowing that I can still push that mower, against its will through the tall grasses of summer. But I am doubly blessed to know that I no longer have to be a ‘rock’ in my imagination or elsewhere. I am standing in that house built on the eternal rock. And if you are young or old reading this, it is available to you also. You don’t need to wait till your lawnmower gets the better of you. Lean on the rock that is Jesus today.

Blessings John,
7/4/18

Happy 4th of July, USA!!